Commander defends troops shooting woman

Page Tools

Related

Australian troops who shot and wounded a woman in Baghdad appear
to have acted correctly, says their commander.

The woman was shot in the head and a boy hurt by broken glass
when the car they were travelling in failed to stop as it
approached a checkpoint in the Iraqi capital yesterday.

The commander of Australian forces in Iraq, Air Commodore Greg
Evans, said a preliminary investigation had found the troops did
not overreact.

"We have done a quick assessment of the actions that were
carried out by the soldiers and given the circumstances, our first
assessment is it looks as if the actions of the soldiers on the
ground were appropriate," he told ABC radio.

The male driver of the car ignored repeated directions in Arabic
to stop, Air Commodore Evans said.

"When they believed themselves to be in danger from the vehicle
(the Australians) engaged it with small arms fire.

"The driver briefly emerged from the vehicle then got back in
and reversed away in the opposite direction at high speed and the
vehicle then disappeared."

Australian troops had managed to track down the woman, who had
been taken to an Iraqi hospital by her family.

Air Commodore Evans said she was now recovering at an American
military hospital within Baghdad's international zone.

The boy has been released from hospital after glass was removed
from a wound under an eye.

It was not known why the driver refused to stop at the
checkpoint, Air Commodore Evans said.